State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is pictured debating a public utility cost transparency bill on the Senate floor recently.

State Sen. George Borrello is supporting a measure to increase cost transparency in utility rate increase proposals – but wants to see more transparency on typical utility bills.

S.8764, sponsored by Sen. Michelle Hinchey, was approved unanimously by the Senate late last week. The unanimity didn’t mean there was a lack of debate however. The chapter amendment, which will be taken up by the state Assembly, limits the application of the bill to a major change in rates and clarifies that the Public Service Commission will consider the operation of the distribution system among other factors when examining capital expenditures.

“This bill is incredibly important because it provides transparency to the capital projects that utility companies

are doing across our districts,” Hinchey said. “One of the reasons why ratepayer bills are increasing and why this transparency is so important is because a number of utility companies actually continue to build fossil fuel infrastructure, including in places where it is no longer needed and have been transitioned to renewables. And so being able to have that transparency, to not waste ratepayer dollars on infrastructure that we’re moving away from, and instead, invest into renewable energy that we know for a fact, is cheaper, is incredibly important so this bill provides that transparency and saves people money.”

The original legislation approved during the 2025 legislative session requires a utility to provide a description of the capital expenditure that affects a rate case, including total cost, rationale for being part of the rate case and anticipated benefits to ratepayers. The chapter amendment adds operation of the state power grid to the description that utility companies will have to provide.

Borrello took the opportunity to disagree with the idea that solar projects are cheaper than traditional forms of energy while also disagreeing with past efforts to oppose legislation that would allow utility companies like the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities to show the cost of Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act-related charges to be broken out on a customer’s utility bill.

“Not to disagree with my colleague on the other side of the aisle, but, the idea that the kilowatt hours are cheaper going solar than traditional forms of energy is not true,” Borrello said. “If true, why do we need these extensive power purchase agreements where, the companies that have been forced to buy green energy at a much higher rate, and it is often subsidized by the rate payers and taxpayers. If it was actually cheaper we wouldn’t need the power purchase agreements that force even public utilities and not for profits to have to pay more, and to give back less to the folks that they are supposed to be benefiting. So this is just not true. It is simply not true. And if the CLCPA was making things cheaper, why did this body ban utility companies from being able to outline an itemized list of what the costs are from the CLCPA to the ratepayers?”